Chamizal National Memorial, Texas

Chamizal National Memorial is a memorial on the US-Mexico Border. It occupies a 55-acre park in El Paso, Texas. The memorial commemorates the peaceful settlement of the Chamizal boundary dispute.

The Chamizal boundary dispute came about due to the shift in the course of the Rio Grande. In the Treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo and the Treaty of 1884, the two governments agreed on the international border being the middle of the Rio Grande. However, the river continued to shift south, creating land that was claimed by both the United States and Mexico.

Chamizal National Memorial Visitor Center
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chamizal_visitor_center.JPG
Author: Matthew A. Lynn


Eventually the two countries brought the dispute to the International Boundary Commission. The tribunal in 1911 recommended that the disputed land that lies between the riverbed, as surveyed in 1852, and the middle of the river in 1864, would become US territory, while the remainder land to become Mexican territory. However the US rejected the proposal, fueling more dispute between the two governments.

Several attempts were made between 1911 and 1963 to settle the disagreement, which was affecting Mexico-US relations, until President John F Kennedy agreed to settle the matter based on the 1911 arbitration award. In 1964 Presidents Adolfo López Mateos and Lyndon B. Johnson met at the border to officially end the dispute. To prevent the Rio Grande from shifting the international boundary in future, a concrete channel was built at the site.

The Chamizal National Memorial was established in 1974 with a museum to educate the public on how diplomacy and cooperation were the basis for ending the border dispute.

Visiting Chamizal National Memorial, Texas

Exit Interstate 10 to US Highway 54 and then follow the sign to the Chamizal National memorial.

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